Turns out Bryan Cranston was just as blindsided by one of Breaking Bad’s darkest twists as millions of viewers.
During a recent Variety Actors on Actors conversation with Better Call Saul star Rhea Seahorn, Cranston shared hilarious behind-the-scenes confession about the moment he realized Walter White had gone even further than he thought.
Like many actors in Vince Gilligan’s universe, Cranston received scripts one at a time, meaning he often had no clue where the story was heading next.
That became a problem during a pivotal Season 4 showdown when Jesse Pinkman points a gun at Walter, convinced he poisoned young Brock Cantillo.
“I remember shooting an episode of Breaking Bad where Aaron Paul’s character, Jesse, comes at me with a gun because he thinks I poisoned the little boy in the show, and I’m going, ‘Why would I do that?’” Cranston recalled.
Certain Walter was innocent, he threw himself into the scene, even blaming Gus Fring.
“I point the finger in the direction of Giancarlo Esposito’s character: ‘Gus Fring, he’s the one who would stand to gain by this!’”
Then the next script arrived.
“’You think I did it? Then kill me. Then shoot me right now, if you think I did it!’” Cranston remembered performing. But after reading the following episode, reality hit.
“And then the next episode came a few days later and I’m reading it and I go, ‘Oh, I did do it.’ Oops. My bad!”
Despite the shock, Cranston said he would not have changed a thing about his performance.
“No, because he has to be believable. But maybe I really thought that it was Gus Fring that did it!”
If Walter White could fool Bryan Cranston, maybe the rest of us never stood a chance.
